Confessional

TOUCHY AREA. A bill to protect the sanctity of the confessional in child abuse cases has passed the House on a 105 to 3 vote. Rep. Fred. Lippman, D- Hollywood, said the measure (HB 136) would not apply if a parishioner confides to his priest or minister his intention to lie to a court during child abuse trials.

"Homeland" star Claire Danes just won a Golden Globe and is up for an Emmy Sunday (Sept. 23) for her remarkable portrayal of a CIA operative who suffers from bipolar disorder. "I had to do a lot of research for this role," the actress said Sept. 19 on NPR's Morning Edition . And she looked to a surprising source for inspiration. "I found great material on YouTube," Danes revealed. "There was a lot of footage of people who recorded themselves when they were in manic states.

Pope John Paul II told Roman Catholic priests Saturday not to be too stern in the confessional - especially with penitents admitting adultery. A priest should never show surprise, he said, however serious or unusual the transgression, nor should he try to become an amateur psychoanalyst. ''He should never condemn the person rather than the sin or foster a spirit of terror or fear,'' the 72-year-old pontiff told the visiting priests. ''He should maintain a serene facial expression and avoid gestures which might convey shock, disapproval or irony.

We know MTV homogenizes music, but the rock apocalypse has truly come early with the announcement of their Rock Band Live tour. How postmodern. Come see the generic "Rock Band," playing their hits, "Power Ballad" and "Ironic New Wave Rip-off"! Oh, wait. Turns out this is a tour to promote that Rock Band, the video game that makes our neighbors hate us. Dashboard Confessional and Panic at the Disco are co-headlining, even though the former's songs aren't currently featured on the game, and the latter is somewhat lacking in rockitude.

An 85-year-old priest was mugged in the confessional by a man who had begged him for some money and asked to make a confession, police said. The Rev. Raymond Dendon gave the man some change when he showed up Saturday afternoon at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Brooklyn, police spokesman Doram Tamari said. Then the man asked the priest to hear his confession. ''They go into the confessional and he grabs the priest's arm through the screen and threatens to break it,'' Tamari said.

We know MTV homogenizes music, but the rock apocalypse has truly come early with the announcement of their Rock Band Live tour. How postmodern. Come see the generic "Rock Band," playing their hits, "Power Ballad" and "Ironic New Wave Rip-off"! Oh, wait. Turns out this is a tour to promote that Rock Band, the video game that makes our neighbors hate us. Dashboard Confessional and Panic at the Disco are co-headlining, even though the former's songs aren't currently featured on the game, and the latter is somewhat lacking in rockitude.

CINCINNATI -- Ohio prosecutors have dropped charges against a man suspected of stabbing a Roman Catholic priest who refused to reveal his attacker's identity because of the confidential seal of the confessional. Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said he fully supported the priest's decision not to help police because the incident occurred after he had heard the suspect's confession. The Rev. Charles Mentrup, 41, told authorities he was bound by the church's seal of the confessional to withhold all information about the stabbing, which occurred at his home in Middletown.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A retired Roman Catholic priest charged with repeatedly raping a young boy, sometimes in the church confessional, pleaded not guilty Tuesday and was ordered held on $750,000 cash bail. The Rev. Paul Shanley, 71, who is charged with three counts of child rape, had recently left the country and is a flight risk, prosecutor Lynn Rooney said during the arraignment in Newton District Court.

Etta James, Matriarch of the Blues (Private Music): With salacious good humor and genuine emotion, the virtually indestructible R&B singer makes this collection of classics a testament to her own durability, as well as that of the material. Supported by her band's adept soul, funk and blues flavorings, the 62-year-old icon freshens up even such well-worn numbers as "Try a Little Tenderness." Yet more satisfying are her takes on such rock tunes as the Stones' "Miss You," which simmers with confessional desperation, and Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody."

ON A RECENT TV news program, the anchor showed film of Mrs. Jimmy Swaggart pleading for funds to save the TV evangelical network her embattled husband founded. The newsman reported Mrs. Swaggart as saying she did not blame her husband for his aberrant behavior, because Satan made him transgress.If we can accept the woman's reasoning, then perhaps we can apply the Swaggart principle to our criminal justice system. Instead of trials in county courts, we could have county confessional systems in which an elected confessor hears the repentance of weeping, wailing criminal perpetrators, forgives them, and sentences them to six months of community service.

Now it's my turn. Hand me a baseball so I can write on it: "I'm sorry I keep helping Pete Rose take your money." Last week we talked about the 30 Rose "confessional baseballs" scheduled to be auctioned. Rose immediately said he never signed them with any intention of making a profit. But now you can visit his Web site, Peterose.com, to avoid the middle man by buying a ball from Rose himself for $299 ("Guaranteed Authentic"). And for just another 50 bucks, Rose will use your name, too. So I'm sorry.

Personal tragedy has become a disconcerting overflow of reality TV. I don't know at what point we morphed from keeping our respectful distance to scrambling to get a front-row seat for the media circus. The ringmasters are talk-show hosts, bringing us story lines fueled by incessant chatter and speculation from friends, insiders, and the proverbial psychological and criminal experts. It makes for riveting TV, reflected in the horrific twist involving Melinda Duckett, mother of missing 2-year-old Trenton Duckett of Leesburg.

For the past four decades, Jack Gilbert has been fashioning bitterly honest poems about "adult concerns," as he calls them -- poems about love and betrayal, grief and longing. Gilbert's 1981 collection Monolithos read like a record of his tumultuous and intense years with the poet Linda Gregg. The Great Fires, published in 1994, was more of a funeral dirge, as it mourned the death of Gilbert's other great love, Michiko Nogami, with whom he lived for more than a decade. And so now, another decade later, we have Refusing Heaven, Gilbert's latest wintry volume, dedicated to Nogami and Gregg, containing poems remembering the former and praising the latter.

*** Avril Lavigne, Under My Skin (Arista): In magazines, Avril Lavigne has worried that her new album might be too mature for fans of her monster debut Let Go, but she shouldn't get her baggy pants in a twist over it. Under My Skin incorporates the same approach that made her first album such a touchstone for teens unable to find meaning in Britney's midriff or Christina's superfluous high notes. Just beneath the studio sheen, these songs project a street credibility custom-fitted for mall rats.

"This is a song about feeling bad and then feeling better.'' That was Chris Carrabba's introduction to "The Best Deceptions,'' but the description would have fit any of the songs at Dashboard Confessional's Wednesday concert, the first in a three-night stand that closes with tonight's sold-out show at House of Blues at Downtown Disney. Carrabba, who started his career in South Florida, has become a teen-culture icon for wearing his heart on his sleeve, and Wednesday's show was filled with familiar melodrama and overblown adolescent angst.

Now it's my turn. Hand me a baseball so I can write on it: "I'm sorry I keep helping Pete Rose take your money." Last week we talked about the 30 Rose "confessional baseballs" scheduled to be auctioned. Rose immediately said he never signed them with any intention of making a profit. But now you can visit his Web site, Peterose.com, to avoid the middle man by buying a ball from Rose himself for $299 ("Guaranteed Authentic"). And for just another 50 bucks, Rose will use your name, too. So I'm sorry.

Personal tragedy has become a disconcerting overflow of reality TV. I don't know at what point we morphed from keeping our respectful distance to scrambling to get a front-row seat for the media circus. The ringmasters are talk-show hosts, bringing us story lines fueled by incessant chatter and speculation from friends, insiders, and the proverbial psychological and criminal experts. It makes for riveting TV, reflected in the horrific twist involving Melinda Duckett, mother of missing 2-year-old Trenton Duckett of Leesburg.

There's immense adolescent goodwill at a typical Dashboard Confessional concert, better known as the place where the sing-along never ends. Not that there aren't people who mock Dashboard's relentless melodrama, but few would venture into the midst of fans to announce it. So it must have come as a surprise to Dashboard's Chris Carrabba, who arrives Wednesday for a three-night stand at House of Blues at Downtown Disney, when a heckler surfaced at a...

Walking into a practice session of Us/Slam Cultural Jam feels like eavesdropping on an entire afternoon of intense group therapy. "My friends wear big black sunglasses. Not because of fashion, but because their boyfriends punch them in the face." "I'm a lesbian, but my mother cries whenever I bring it up. Mom said she would rather I shoot her in the head than tell her that." It continues. "I'm a proud virgin." "I'm the son of a drug addict." "I love this country." "I hate this country."